Sir, – I refer your Editorial (“Orbanisation”, January 9th). In general, I have found the parallel between Mr Putin and Mr Orban too sweeping and in most of the cases without too much foundation. Mr Orban and his Fidesz party won a straight and fair election in spring 2010 (and not by stuffing ballot boxes).
His sweeping victory was partly due to the manifest incompetency and widespread corruption of the previous Socialist-Free Democrat government, which left an extremely difficult economic situation behind as a legacy. The unorthodox measures (new taxes on banks, etc) by the new government had to be introduced because of the sorry state of the Hungarian economic and financial situation inherited from the previous government. They and other similar steps are intended to enable Hungary to meet the Copenhagen criteria; in other words, to create firm economic and fiscal conditions in Hungary and thus, by extension, to strengthen Europe and the European Union.
The reference to “gerrymandered re-election” is prejudging future elections. It is a commonplace in political science that elections are basically decided by the positions the voters take on a number of issues and not the shape of the constituencies.
If, for instance, the British single member constituency had been in force in Hungary, the major opposition party, the Socialists, would have received only one or two seats in the 387-strong Parliament in 1990 and 2010 alike – while Fidesz would now be enjoying a 99 per cent majority! The new electoral law has retained by and large the complex system including party lists, compensation lists, etc, which has been in use in the past 20 years.
The “new curbs” on the independence of the central bank are neither “new” nor “curbs”. It was the Socialist-Free Democrat government in 2004 that first increased the number of the members of the monetary council within the bank and those who now are loudly protesting against the potential but not actual increase of the number were spectacularly quiet at that time. The possibility of merging the central bank and the financial watchdog organisation is not a reality yet either; in fact, there are a number of countries within the EU in which the two institutions are under the same roof.
There is no denying that the present government has committed some mistakes or has made some miscalculations, especially about the international economic environment, which is in much worse shape than was expected when Mr Orban entered office. The present situation especially demands great circumspection; name-calling and throwing about charges which do not always bear closer inspection do not seem to help the common strategic goal of making Europe “whole and free” and prosperous. – Yours, etc,